Coach BBBBB wrote:
Yes, Nordic accessibility is a priority. I'm thinking somewhere outside of Minneapolis might be the ticket. I know there's good skiing in upper Wisconsin and Michigan (although not this year), but I'm not sure I'd want to live there. I'm also wondering what Durango CO is like. Great outdoors opportunities. Not sure what the medical care system is like, and there really isn't a decent airport closer than Denver, I don't believe.
I saw an article about Durango in my news feeds earlier today. Here they discuss strategies for containing tourism. My take is that this is a two dimensional rendering of "July tourism" which I discussed in a previous post.
Make no mistake, July tourism can be really bad with rainbow gatherings and yoga / wildflower / music fests.
Also, there is a serious lag in the mountain towns. Businesses want to be open from 10am to 6pm (max), Wednesday through Sunday. This I believe not only perpetuates the issue of "workforce shortages" and poor work ethic but also says a giant F.U. to locals. It says, we dont care about locals, we just want tourist money. In the mountains, especially during tourist influxes, essentially Sunday night = Friday night, Monday = Saturday and Tuesday = Sunday for locals ... before the tourism starts up again and the process repeats. This can get very overwhelming if it is happening right out your window.
If money was not a barrier an ideal year would be:
December - mountains
January - mountains
February - mountains
March - mountains
April - beach (avoid depressing mud season)
May - mountains
June - mountains
July - northwoods on private lake
August - mountains
September - mountains
October - mountains
November - 2 week trip to fun city, then back to the mountains

